{"id":379009,"date":"2026-08-23T12:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/379009\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T12:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T12:34:12","slug":"butker-drills-69-yard-kick-but-misses-key-shorter-attempts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/379009\/","title":{"rendered":"Butker drills 69-yard kick but misses key shorter attempts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n

With 3 seconds left in the first half on Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker lined up for the seemingly preposterous: a 69-yard field goal attempt.<\/p>\n

Why not, but … come on.<\/p>\n

The far-fetched venture was from a yard farther than the NFL record set by Jacksonville\u2019s Cam Little last season. And it was just a yard shy of Little\u2019s unofficial record, set in the preseason, of 70 yards.<\/p>\n

Implausible as it might have appeared to be for those who haven\u2019t witnessed his range in practice or warmups, Butker didn\u2019t merely eke the ball through.<\/p>\n

He pummeled it with such authority that he casually turned away in triumph even as the ball still was soaring into the net, likely good from 75-ish yards. The kick compelled Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes to erupt on the sideline like they\u2019d won a crucial game, and it prompted the star quarterback to come galloping out to the field, among the first to congratulate Butker.<\/p>\n

\"Kansas Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) celebrates teammate Harrison Butker\u2019s 69-yard field goal during a preseason NFL game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. Kim Klement Neitzel IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect <\/p>\n

\u201cMy hype team,\u201d Butker joked after the Chiefs lost 16-15 to suffer their eighth straight preseason loss.<\/p>\n

And that was after he\u2019d hit from 58 and 45 in the first half.<\/p>\n

But then came the confounding stuff that crops up periodically with the third-leading scorer (1,122 points) in Chiefs history behind Nick Lowery (1,466) and Jan Stenerud (1,231).<\/p>\n

Evoking memories of last season, when he missed four point-after attempts in 35 tries, Butker missed the ensuing PAT \u2026 albeit after initially making it but missing at extra distance after a 10-yard holding penalty.<\/p>\n

More jarringly, with 3:27 left he missed wide right on a would-be game-winning field goal from 43 yards out \u2014 making for a point of concern for a team that went 1-9 in one-score games last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be the first to tell you that\u2019s the one that he\u2019ll remember,\u201d Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game.<\/p>\n

\"Kansas Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker (7) misses a field goal against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during a preseason NFL game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. Kim Klement Neitzel IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect <\/p>\n

Although Butker entertained questions about the one most will remember, that remote shot, he also was subdued about it in ways he might not have been if he didn\u2019t have the rest on his mind.<\/p>\n

No doubt Reid read it right when it came to Butker\u2019s broader disappointment.<\/p>\n

While Butker mustered a joke about how late the game got to be \u2014 \u201cmaybe I need some more caffeine for the second half or something,\u201d he said, smiling \u2014 he clearly was chagrined.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course; you\u2019ve got to make your kicks,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, (I) miss an extra point, miss a game-winner. That\u2019s what I care about, not the 69-yarder or whatever it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caring about it, of course, means working to fix it.<\/p>\n

And Butker was going to need to review it further to understand what went awry since he felt he was \u201cmentally\u201d in the right place for the kick and that it felt good off his foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very surprised when I looked up,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cProbably late hips, but \u2026 (it) didn\u2019t feel like that when I kicked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he also allowed as how he\u2019s had a pattern of missing more routine kicks after making longer ones.<\/p>\n

So much so, he said, that after \u201cbig kicks\u201d it\u2019s occasionally been a \u201cstruggle to finish the game\u201d or have it not affect shorter kicks later.<\/p>\n

Which is part of why one of his points of emphasis in this training camp has been on the intermediate kicks \u2014 from 40 to 50 yards out.<\/p>\n

Look, it\u2019s hard not to wonder about what this means.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also the sort of thing could just as easily be a blip as an issue or source of anxiety for Butker \u2026 even if it may well already be that for fans.<\/p>\n

After all, he\u2019s been so clutch so often: For instance, he\u2019s hit 36 of 40 postseason career field-goal attempts \u2014 including two Super Bowl game-winners.<\/p>\n

And he has seemed as strong and comfortable as he ever has.<\/p>\n

When last he spoke at training camp in St. Joseph, he felt liberated from the problematic habit he\u2019d developed a few years ago \u2014 to compensate for an ankle injury \u2013 of dropping to his plant-foot knee on kick follow-throughs.<\/p>\n

Yes, he\u2019d worked away from that last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I was having to think about it a lot, especially during training camp,\u201d he said in St. Joe on Aug. 5. \u201cAnd now I don\u2019t have to focus on that, so I\u2019m hoping I can focus on things that matter more (such as) smooth swing thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just such a thought apparently powered the remarkable kick to end the first half.<\/p>\n

As he first spoke of it, Butker more or less shrugged and said he had sought to \u201cjust get a good strike on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably as good as I could hit a ball,\u201d said Butker, who figured the wind was behind him, too.<\/p>\n

\"Kansas Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker (7) celebrates after making a field goal against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during a preseason NFL game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. Kim Klement Neitzel IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect <\/p>\n

All the more encouraging: He hadn\u2019t really been stressing such long kicks in practice, he said, so it was nice to know he could \u201cjust dial that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

That range is an amazing asset for the Chiefs to have in their potential repertoire, to be sure.<\/p>\n

But more often than not, it\u2019s the little things that figure to make the difference for this team.<\/p>\n

Including making the shorter kicks with games on the line \u2014 a lapse on Saturday he said will motivate him for practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I\u2019ve got a lot of trust in him,\u201d Reid said. \u201cI mean, that happens. \u2026 We know what he can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Vahe Gregorian<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kansas City Star<\/p>\n

Vahe Gregorian has been a sports columnist for The Kansas City Star since 2013 after 25 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has covered a wide spectrum of sports, including 10 Olympics. Vahe was an English major at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his master\u2019s degree at Mizzou.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa, Fla. With 3 seconds left in the first half on Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium, Chiefs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-379009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}